In This Life
by luv2write0205
Summary: How would Hotch and Emily's relationship have it's start? Two single attractive people with hope that they won't be alone for the rest of their lives. Anything could happen when the team has a hand in it. May eventually be rated M according to FF guidelines. H/P centric with full team appearence in later chapters...
1. Restless Night

**Disclaimer: **I don't own any part of Criminal Minds or the characters mentioned in this story…

**Summary: **Just a sweet romance story in the lives of Aaron Hotchner and Emily Prentiss. Oh and don't forget about the team. Multiple chapter Hotly story…Begins late in season 4 (where their chemistry all began) to the present day (in later chapters). No Foyet or Doyle yet.

**Author's Note: **This fic is just a sweet romantic story in the lives of Emily Prentiss and Aaron Hotchner. I don't know how many chapters yet, but enjoy!

_Henry Miller once wrote "The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we never give enough is love."_

***~OoO~***

**Chapter 1- Restless Night**

The moon shone through the windows of Emily's darkened apartment. There wasn't a sound, not anywhere. It was just the bright full moon that was like a white lantern in the black sky. It was as if the whole world was asleep, all except one brunette, one restless, sleepless brunette.

Emily Prentiss tried as hard as she could to just let all of her worries and problems slide into that little box that was marked 'Problems' in the back of her head. Tonight, it wasn't possible for her. As hard as she tried, she couldn't sleep at all. The clock still read 1:17 a.m., just like it had been for what had seemed like hours.

It was way too early to go to work. Every sensible person in Quantico, as well as any person in the world, would think that she would be obviously crazy if she went shopping in the middle of the night either. There was only one thing that was on Emily's mind. It had been on her mind for at least two weeks already. It was her supervisor.

Yes, one would say that a person would be crazy to be in love with their boss. Sometimes, even Emily, herself, found it hard to believe that she could be so irrevocably in love with someone who was so…what was the word? Emotionless, stoical, impassive; those were the words that described the man of her dreams.

Aaron Hotchner was his name. He was Unit Chief of the BAU team where Emily was an agent. Her job wasn't all that glamorous either. Basically, all the team did was chase serial killers and put them where they belonged: behind bars. Just by seeing her boss' handsome face would make her days brighter.

Quite often, Emily wondered about Hotch. Would it ever be possible that he could ever love her like she loved him? The chances of such a confident, gorgeous man like him ever wanting a stubborn nerd like her were slim to none, at least that was what she thought. Every night, Emily would dream of Hotch loving her, touching her, kissing her. Some mornings, she could barely face him after the dreams she would have about him.

Emily then decided to take a bath, a nice relaxing bath to unwind and relax. Her thoughts would be whirling and her head would be spinning, but she would not care because it was all for him.

***~OoO~***

Across town, in his apartment building, Aaron Hotchner lay awake in his bed. He couldn't sleep a wink. What could a man do when he wanted his subordinate more than words could ever explain? It was as if he was addicted to thoughts about her. Emily was constantly on his mind, from dusk until dawn, from minute to minute.

Hotch felt restless and unable to sleep at all. Glancing at the clock on his night table, he could see that it was almost two in the morning. One thing that he knew about Emily Prentiss was that she was definitely a night owl.

With a slight hesitation, Hotch's hand grasped the cell phone that was next to the clock. What would he tell her if he called her? What if she had decided to get an early night's sleep and he accidentally woke her up? That would be truly embarrassing, to say the least.

Deciding against it, Hotch gently lowered the cell phone back onto his night table. It was better to play it safe then take the chance. Another thing that he knew about Emily was that she was always cranky when she was woken from a deep sleep.

Hotch decided to pass the time by working on some case files. They would pass the time quicker than him tossing and turning in his bed all night. Opening up his briefcase, the dark haired man began taking the files out of it.

Placing them in front of him, he tried to concentrate, but his mind wandered to Emily. Hotch sighed. Tonight was going to be a really long night for him. Well, he was a hot blooded male after all. Never before, had he felt this strongly about anyone, not even Haley, although he had loved her a lot.

***~OoO~***

Emily soaked her body in the warm water of the tub. She read a romance novel while she was relaxing. Why did the perfect blondes in these stories always get what they wanted: a gorgeous guy while the depressed brunette would always be sad and alone at the end? It all sounded way too familiar to her.

Any romantic novel or movie would remind her of Hotch and how much she loved and wanted him. She wished that she knew whether or not he had mutual feelings for her. Even just knowing would relieve her thoughts and haunting dreams that lingered in the back of her mind.

Emily tossed the book to the side and grabbed her cell phone off of her vanity in the bathroom. Searching through her contacts, she found the number that grabbed her attention. She hesitated before pressing the call button. It took a moment for the call to go through and Emily held her breath when she heard the phone pick up on the other line.

***~OoO~***

_"A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge. " Thomas Carlyle_

***~OoO~***

**Please review and let me know what you thought of the first chapter **

**and if I should continue this fic or not. **

**Reviews are well appreciated **

**and always loved!**


	2. Phone Calls and Pieces of Advice

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Criminal Minds or the characters...

**Author's Note:** Thanks so much to the people who reviewed the first chapter of this story! I decided to write a second chapter as well. Responses to your reviews are at the bottom.

_"Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition"- Alexander Smith_

***~OoO~***

**Chapter 2- Phone Calls and Pieces of Advice**

"Hey Garcia" Emily said softly into the cell phone that was in her right hand. "I need some sort of peace of mind".

"Hiya Em. Whatcha up to on this fine night?" Garcia began. "No wait don't tell me. Let me guess. You are probably…sitting in your bathtub. Am I right?"

"You should become a profiler" Emily murmured in amazement. "Or maybe you are just psychic".

"Nah, I just know how my little Gumdrop is feeling. You sound like you need a friend. No wait; you need a boyfriend, that's what".

"Garcia" Emily started. "I don't need-"

"Are you kidding, Em? You can't be alone for the rest of your life with your only date being your bathtub. Do you want to grow up as some lonely cat lady?" Emily sighed when Garcia had finished speaking.

"What are you even doing up this late, PG?" she asked. "It's two thirty in the morning, you know". Leaning back into the soft cloud of bubbles that were in the bathtub, Emily stared out the window and listened to Garcia's response.

"I would ask the same thing to you, but I know the reason why you are up this late. Me? I have my Kevin with me and we are having our annual two thirty in the morning Wednesday night pizza celebration. You should come over. I can turn on some awesome dance music and we can boogie till we drop".

"I am going to have to pass on this one" Emily answered slowly with a slight chuckle. "Two reasons why. Reason number one: I have work tomorrow and number two: I am pretty sure that pizza isn't the only thing that's going on over there. It also reminds me of that time when Dave caught you and Kevin-"

"And we are dropping this subject" Garcia nearly cried. "Sorry, but I just don't want to go back through that embarrassing moment again. Well I can say that Hotch walking in on us would have been a bit more embarrassing than Dave".

"You betcha" Emily answered. "I actually have something I wanted to tell you or uh talk to you about. I was going to call JJ too, but I know that she is probably asleep. She's got her hands full with Henry and she loves spending time with Will, especially since they are now married".

"Anything, my dark haired crony. So what is it?"

"Well, the thing is…I have a crush on someone and I don't know if he likes me like I like him" Emily finally said in a slow, almost inaudible voice. There was complete silence on the other end of the phone for about five seconds until Garcia finally spoke in an excited voice.

"Oh, Em. This is amazing news! It's about time that you fall in love! Can I take guesses on who has won my little Gumdrop's heart?"

Emily sighed and rolled her eyes. "Knock yourself out, PG".

"Okay, is it Mick Rawson? That hot British dude with the sexy accent from Cooper's team?"

"Nope"

"Is it Reid?"

"No, are you crazy, Garcia? That kid would rather be a complete loner than ever even think about a girl. I'm surprised that he ever even lost his virginity."

"Okay, is it Dave?"

"He's as old as my father, no offense Dave".

"His ears are probably ringing" Garcia remarked with a chuckle.

"Morgan?"

"Never"

"Ok…um Anderson?"

"No, no, Garcia. It's not any of them. It's Hotch! It's always been Hotch. I am completely and utterly in love with him. I have no idea on how to tell him or what I should do, but that isn't going to change my feelings for him whatsoever. He's my boss, my supervisor. I shouldn't have feelings for my superior. It is totally wrong. I need advice. I…I need his love like a drug. The man is hotter than a thousand suns put together. I need to know what it feels like to kiss him, to feel his lips on mine. His love drives me completely insane!"

By the time that Emily had finished blurting out her feelings for Hotch, she was out of breath and felt like she wanted to throw herself on the floor and cry for the rest of the night. She squirmed under the mountain of bubbles that surrounded her in the tub and waited for Garcia's response.

"I think you should tell him" she finally said in a soft voice. "It'll make you feel better no matter what he thinks. You need to be spontaneous and passionate with the stubborn men that you fall for".

"Well, what about if he doesn't like me back?"

"Then, you will have to do two things: you'll need to come on to him without permission and you'll need to let me know if he doesn't like you romantically so that I can put his credit cards in debt for the next ten years. He'll be begging on his knees for you by the time I'm done with him".

Emily snorted with laughter when she heard the blonde's reply. She could imagine Garcia being evil and that alone made her laugh. If the technical analyst ever decided to turn to the dark side and become an unsub, she would be completely unstoppable.

"I'll catch him alone at work, in his office or in the breakroom, and just break it to him" Emily suggested. She hoped that this would go okay. She would keep her fingers crossed.

"Yeah. Who knows? The two of you might share some lip to lip contact by the end of today" Garcia remarked.

"I'm not going to bring my hopes up that far because if it never happens, then I'll wind up going home and crying into my pillow" Emily answered. She caught a glance at the clock that was hanging on the wall and her eyes widened.

"PG, its 3:30 in the morning. I gotta get at least an hour of sleep before work. Thanks so much for the advice and the little push that I needed to get on my way".

"Anytime, Em. Anytime" Garcia replied. "Have a good night. Get your beauty sleep".

The two women said their goodnights and hung up the phones that they were using. Emily washed the bubbles off of herself and pulled her dry hair out of the bun that it was in. Pulling her nightgown back on, she climbed into her bed and began to finally drift off to dreamland.

***~OoO~***

_"Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives" –C.S. Lewis_

***~OoO~***

**Please review to let me know what you thought of this chapter **

**and if I should do another. **

**Reviews are love!**

**brunettewitch158, H-P Forever More, rosessre, Hotly-Jemily, healthnut1232-**Thanks so much for the compliment! I hope to contiue with a couple more chapters...

**pugsrmybffs-** Haha! Hotch and Emily are so horney, I think. It makes me laugh that they have mutual feelings for each other, yet they are oblivious to it.

**Whitewolf- **Thanks! I tried to make it relate to the show as best as I could. I was hoping that it doesn't seem too far fetched.

**Aaron 'Dimples' Hotchner-** It probably would have been easier for Hotch to send a quick text to Emily, but I kind of wanted to make it like Emily was playing hard to get and Hotch was getting fustrated. A jealous Hotch is always a hot Hotch. LOL! Thanks for the review!

**greengirl82- **I love anything that has Hotly in it too. I was thinking of doing a couple more chapters. I'll see the direction that this story takes and continue from there. Thanks for the review!

**HPforever-after, VegasNYLAParis-**Thanks for the feedback. I'll try and update ASAP.


	3. Experience and Ideas

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Criminal Minds or the characters at all...

**Author's Note:** Thanks so much to all who reviewed! Special thanks to **Cantbeboveredtologin **for giving me the idea for this chapter. Reviews are well appreciated. Responses are at the end of this chapter.

_"I know of only one duty and that is to love" –Albert Camus_

***~OoO~***

**Chapter 3- Experience and Ideas**

The light blue curtains that framed the paned window blew softly in the wind, allowing the white moon's rays to enter the bedroom, casting a circle of light on the floor and bathing the room in a quaint, yet stunning, glow. Shifting in his bed, Aaron Hotchner tossed on his left side, and then to his right. Squeezing his eyes shut, he tried to erase her face from his memory for tonight.

Her face was one of angel's, gentle, yet strong features. Her deep brown eyes were always perfectly set, her nose was built of perfection and her lips always looked soft and had a natural pink color to them, one of which she sometimes covered with candy apple red lipstick. Hotch loved her brown, silky locks that came a little past her shoulders and her curvy, yet stunning figure that often had him wondering what she hid under those suits that she wore to work every day. It was pretty much obvious that Hotch was in love with this woman.

Thoughts started to run through Hotch's head. He began to think about his ways to capture her heart without making a fool of himself. Over the course of the past two years, they had started to become close. Emily Prentiss had started out as just the agent that had been assigned to Hotch's team. He had barely wanted to know her then. Ever since Hotch's attack by Foyet, Emily had started checking in on him, making sure that he was okay and assuring him that he was never alone.

Sometimes, Hotch thought that maybe she did feel the way that he did. When he had ended up in the hospital after being nearly stabbed to death by Foyet, Emily had been worried about him the most. All of those nights when she would walk him up to his apartment, he had felt like pursuing something further with her. Once she would close the door of his apartment, Hotch always felt an urge to slam her up against it and kiss her until neither of them could breathe or see correctly.

Quite often lately, Hotch had caught Emily gazing at him in desire. He was almost positive that when he had chased an unsub into a lake two weeks ago, Emily had licked her lips upon seeing his fairly huge biceps when she had brought him a dry shirt to change into afterwards. Also on more than one occasion, he had caught Emily staring at his lips when he was talking to her or addressing the team. Whenever their hands would accidentally brush on the plane or their arms would be touching, both would feel the electric shock that would plaque them both immediately.

Hotch needed to talk to someone about his feelings. He was afraid to call Emily directly in fear of making a bigger fool of himself. Instead, he dialed Dave's phone number. Less than ten seconds later, the phone picked up and Dave answered the call.

"Hello? You've reached the Rossi's residents. This is Dave speaking".

"Since when do you have more than one Rossi at your residency?" Hotch teased his older friend playfully.

"Oh, I don't know, Aaron. Why is there only one Hotchner at your household? Listen kiddo, you really need to get hooked up wi-".

Hotch shifted in his bed and pulled the phone closer to his ear. "That's um exactly what I wanted to talk to you about. So, you know that I have a crush on Prentiss, right?"

"This is about Emily, Hotch? Did you tell her how you feel yet? I mean she is one hot woman, so I doubt that she is going to be single much longer".

"I actually need some advice on how to make her open to my feelings. I don't know how she feels about me. What if our feelings don't match?" asked Hotch nervously. It scared him to think about the repercussions if she didn't have mutual feelings towards him.

Dave rolled his eyes. "Look, Aaron. How much more obvious could you get? Emily is definitely in love with you. Even a stranger could see that. Hell, the whole team can see it. Damn, even Strauss can see it for crying out loud. For profilers, you two are the most naïve when it comes to romantic feelings. And you are going to do something about this".

Hotch immediately felt the butterflies take flight in his stomach, He contemplated that it was a bad idea to call Dave after all. That man could be a serious love maniac, especially since he once had three wives too many. Twisting his fingers into his palm, Hotch tried to remain as calm as possible.

"Buy Emily breakfast in the morning and a cup of coffee. Leave it on her desk and watch her response. After that, call her into your office and seal the deal. Tell her that you have feelings for her and then kiss her. After that, you take her out for lunch. If she feels the same way, she is going to kiss you back and she is going to seem excited to go out for lunch with you".

Hotch slowly nodded. It was kind of overwhelming for him. But being a confident man, he realized that maybe he could do this. Maybe it was possible for him to gain a gorgeous woman like Emily. With his luck, he doubted it, but then realized that maybe he should give it a shot.

"Okay, Dave. I think I'll try this tomorrow. How sure are you that this is going to work?"

"About 90% sure. With the signs and hints that Emily is throwing you, I'm going to say 98% chance that she feels the same way as you do. Gosh, you two have it bad for each other".

After finishing up his conversation with Dave, Hotch finally drifted off to a calm, peaceful sleep, dreaming about the woman that he was in love with.

***~OoO~***

_"All my life, my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name" -Andre Breton_

***~OoO~***

** Please leave a review, letting me know if you liked it.**

** Reviews are well loved!**

**pugsrmybffs, Hotly-Jemily- **Me too. Garcia seems like the never ending party person. Thanks for the thoughtful compliment.

**H-P Forever More**- I know! I wish Emily would just admit that she likes Hotch on the show, and all us, Hotly fans will be happy for a really long time. Maybe I can add it to my Christmas list, lol.

**rosessre, HPforever-after-**Thanks for the compliment and the review! I'll try and update soon!

**H-P Fan1242, skinnymini01-**I kind of have a plan of how Hotch is going to find out and how Emily is going to confess her love, but I got to see where this story gets taken. These stories are unpredictable sometimes. Thanks for the review!

**cantbeboveredtologin-** Thank you so much for the ideas that you gave me. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Thanks for the review as well!

**Aaron 'Dimples' Hotchner- **I know, right? I wish they would just do it already. They have enough sexual tension taken out, why not just do it? lol. Sometimes I get carried away when I talk about Hotly. XD.


	4. The Rules of Discussions

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Criminal Minds…

**Summary: **Kevin and Garcia have a conversation about the relationship between Emily and Hotch. Also mentions a bit of Emily's thoughts about what Hotch could do to her.

**Author's Note: **Sorry that it took so long to update this story. Responses to your reviews are at the bottom… Enjoy.

"_True love is like ghosts, whom everyone talks about and few have seen."_

_-Francois de La Rochefoucauld_

***~OoO~***

**Chapter 4- The Rules of Discussions**

As soon as Garcia had hung up with Emily, she turned around to see her love, Kevin, standing behind her. His eyes were wide behind the huge glasses that he wore and he was only clad in a pair of boxer shorts.

"Hey Pen. How is she?" Kevin had become good friends with Emily over the years. Not only had they bonded over certain book titles one time, they had also realized that they both belonged to Neopets, an online animated character website. That was something that they had in common, yet no one else, not even Garcia knew about that. It was their own little secret.

Garcia crossed her nightgown clad arms over her chest. "My brunette beauty is head over heels in love and she is seeking some advice from me about what steps to take in her relationship". Kevin nodded at his girlfriend's response.

"They should just admit that they are in love and then we can all be happy" he sighed. It was pretty obvious that both Hotch and Emily were crazy about each other.

"As much as I hate to admit it, isn't that easy" Garcia answered. "They are both stubborn and two stubborn agents, refusing to admit their never-ending love for each other is definitely a difficult situation. I've been trying to convince Emily that Hotch likes her too, but she just won't listen".

After a minute of silence, Kevin finally spoke. "It's amazing that they are two remarkable profilers and still can't figure out their feelings". Both he and Garcia chuckled at that. The nagging feeling in the back of Garcia's head kept telling her to just bring the two of them together and lock them in one room so that they could go at each other. That was a rather nice way to make them fall in love. The feeling continued to badger her for the next couple of minutes.

"If you were in Emily's position, what would you do?" Kevin asked Garcia. The odd question caught Garcia off guard, but she recovered with remarkable speed, replying in her usual fast tone.

"I would probably go for Hotch big time. Being me, I would be spontaneous and visit him in the middle of the night so that I could jump his bones. That's a good thought, isn't it, Kevy?" Garcia leaned forward on the couch and rested her head in her hands so that she was facing her boyfriend. A smile spread across her face.

Kevin made eye contact with the bubbly blonde. "That is a good thought, Pen. Just one thing; can it be me that you jump, not Agent Hotchner?"

Garcia rolled her eyes. "Of course, Special K. It's always you. By the way, Hotch is going to belong to Emily soon. I'm not the type to steal Gumdrop's Bossman, or JJ's Southern macho man".

Kevin smirked at his girlfriend's reference to their friends. "Of course, babe". The geeky looking man leaned forward to kiss the technical analyst, deepening the kiss so that were soon making out on the couch. Oh yeah…this was what Garcia had meant when she had talked to Emily about her Wednesday night parties. With a little more of this, things could get really exciting from here.

***~OoO~***

For Emily, the night seemed to last forever. Dream after romantic dream plagued her mind and she felt haunted with thoughts about Hotch. Every single thought that she had involved him. To try and fall asleep, Emily began to play a game where she would think about the things that Hotch could probably do to her body.

Emily had wanted to be more than friends with him for as long as she could remember. Despite his coldness to her when she had first joined the team six years ago, Emily had wanted Hotch back then. She took his authority as something to be desired. He was an alpha male, and a sexy one at that. She imagined his authority in bed, an over controlling, passionate, possessive ego being released into the scolding depths of her body. She liked to envisage the things he could do to her body during intimacy.

Hotch had always seemed like the type to be stingy enough to throw her down on a bed or couch and pound into her until she couldn't see anymore. She visualized him as the confident nature, poised, a lust filled male, passionate enough to go down on her in the middle of a work day in his office. She could foresee him as one who was eager to make out with her in the back of a car in the Bureau parking lot. He seemed like the type to be an amazing kisser, his lips like pieces of paradise.

Emily had always noticed the small things about Hotch that could go unnoticed by most people, but not her. The way his dimples would show more whenever his rare smile would plaque his handsome features, the way he would make eye contact directly that could challenge the velocity of a lightning bolt, the way he would lick his lips when he was deep in thought; these were the little things that Emily noticed about her boss.

Whenever his trademark dimples would show, Emily would start to blush uncontrollably and the butterflies in her stomach would start to take flight. His eyes on her would send her mind into a tailspin and whenever Hotch licked his lips, Emily would start to have inappropriate fantasies about what his mouth could do to her body. The very thought of Hotch inside of her, moving in and out, up and down, had her becoming instantly wet.

Emily allowed her fingertips to brush down her neck, beneath her thin nightgown to caress her bare breasts. She imagined Hotch being the one touching her breasts like that. It made her squirm to think about it. With built up tension and lust, Emily decided what she was going to do. She promised herself that come hell or high water, she was going to tell Hotch how she felt tomorrow, if it was the last thing she did.

***~OoO~***

"_To say "I love you" one must first be able to say the "I."_

_-Ayn Rand_

***~OoO~***

**Thanks for the reviews so far, guys! Please review this chapter! I love**

**hearing from all of you.**

***~OoO~***

**Rosessre, Aaron 'Dimples' Hotchner, Hotly- Jemily**- I'll try and update soon! Thanks for the review!

**Iheartred127- **Yeah, Garcia and Dave are pretty amazing.

**H-P Forever More, pugsrmuybffs- **Dave is super cool. I'll try and update soon!

**H-P Forever After- **Thanks for the compliment and the review!

"**Guest"- **Thanks so much for letting me know! Thanks for the review as well!


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